The Weatherskull by Austin Abt, one of his early products at TIDES.
Imagine a device that delivers information about the local climate by way of lights. Imagine that same device installed in a plastic skull dubbed the Weatherskull. The mouth indicates inside temperatures. The eyes light up displaying outside temperatures. And claw-like LEDs surrounding the skull dim and brighten depending on the humidity. Finding this on Amazon.com wouldn’t surprise you, but the Weatherskull actually resides in the College’s Towell Library, and it’s an innovation developed and built by a student at the College, Austin Abt.
Abt is one of a dozen or so students who co-founded TIDES (Technology, Innovative Design and Entrepreneurship Studio), a new makerspace on campus. At TIDES, students from a variety of academic disciplines work and learn together to develop products and find solutions to a variety of challenges.
Mike Edenzon and Rhone Findlay, two other co-founders, have been working for much of the fall semester to develop a new kind of drone. “We don’t know if we’ll end up with a marketable product,” explains Edenzon, a computer information systems major, “but we’re learning so much about solving structural problems, coding issues and aerodynamic challenges. We’re also getting a lot of experience working with new technologies as a team.”
Niko Levigne, a finance major who is also a TIDES co-founder, says “Students can come here to work on almost any kind of project. We have most of the resources anyone might need, such as several 3D printers and a vinyl cutter. We’ve also got a 3D scanner on order. It’s so cool that you can come to this studio and bring a project to life. I think TIDES is really breaking down the barriers to innovation.”
One of several 3D printers in TIDES makerspace.
With financial support from the Department of Supply Chain and Information Management in the School of Business, TIDES is open to students most days of the week. Chris Starr, a professor who teaches in that department, oversees the project. “It’s an amazing example of how technology is accessible to all students, even at a liberal arts college,” Starr explains. “In the past, it was only accessible to engineering students, but now anyone from any major has an opportunity to engage in innovation.”
To assist the students with some of the challenges they encounter, Starr has engaged a cadre of engineers from corporations and businesses around Charleston. These “consultants” come in on a volunteer basis and spend time helping the students surmount structural issues and other engineering questions.
TIDES co-founders, from left, Rhone Findlay, Mike Edenzon, Professor Chris Starr and Niko Levigne.
“Most of what we do here involves self-taught skills,” explains Levigne. “For me, it’s about tackling problems by thinking differently. The reason I’m doing this is that in the future I want to, if not run a company, at least help someone else run a company. Being a finance major, I’ll be able to help with the fiscal management, but what I’m learning at TIDES is how to effectively communicate with people on projects and how to code. Most companies hiring in the financial sector want candidates with computer science skills as well as financial knowledge. So, if I can tell an employer that I can code and I’ve got experience making things and also I’m a finance major, it will give me a big boost in the professional world.”
For Edenzon, who spends about 25 hours a week at TIDES, the near-term goal for the studio is to get more students across campus engaged. “My vision is that one of us will end up with a solid patent application by the end of this academic year.”
And Starr concurs, but his ultimate metric for success is slightly different. “If we can get to the point that we have at least one student involved from every major at the College, then we’ll be succeeding,” says Starr, adding that he would also like to see participating students consider a minor in information management or a major in supply chain management.
Levigne, Edenzon and Rhone, along with the other students who oversee the activities at TIDES, have partnered with Reforge, a Charleston-based makerspace to stage an event on campus called Reforge Summit. This gathering will showcase the many products and innovations that participants at both Reforge and TIDES have developed in the past months. The summit will take place at 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 14, 2016, in Wells Fargo Auditorium. It’s free and open to the public.
For more information about TIDES, visit the studio’s Facebook page.
